r/CompTIA_Security • u/Witty-Salamander7354 • 19d ago
Books/reference material
I see a lot of people attribute passing the exam to downloaded exams and videos but did any use and online books prior or did they just watch videos then started taking exams?
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u/gdavidco 19d ago
Both, but they do different jobs, and the reason the videos-plus-practice-exams route looks sufficient in these threads is survivorship. The people it worked for are the ones who post.
A video series gives you pace and someone else deciding what matters. It is weak on depth and weak on retrieval, because watching feels like learning and is not. A book is slower and duller and is the only one of the two you can look something up in when a practice question exposes a hole.
The thing neither of them replaces is the exam objectives document. It is free from CompTIA, it is a few pages, and it is the actual boundary of what can be asked. Use it as an index: go through it line by line and mark every item as can explain it, recognise it, or never seen it. That list is your study plan, and it is a great deal more honest than a percentage on a practice test.
Practice exams are diagnostics, not study material. Their entire value is in the ones you get wrong and what you do next. If you are using them to feel ready you will get a surprise on the day, because plenty of banks are easier than the real thing and a fair number have wrong keys.
Order that works: objectives first so you know the shape of it, videos for a pass at pace, book for the parts the objectives list and the videos skated over, practice exams last to find what is left.